Worn Out
by Noodleslove
Summary: Naruto keeps a very precious photo close to him at all times. Contains vague NaruSasu, can be interpreted as frienship. :3


This was written for the sasunaru100 challenge: Pictures.

Titled: Worn Out

Rated: G

Author: Noodleslove

Notes: This contains vague hints of NaruSasu, but if that bothers you it could simply be interpreted as friendship. There is a picture that goes along with this called, "And Dog-Eared" and it can be found in my DA account. A link is in my profile. Please enjoy. :33

O.O.O.O.

When Naruto turned twelve, an important thing happened in his life. Naruto's twelfth year was the first year that he was in a photograph, (with the exception of photos taken for records in the Academy) and also the first year he took a picture of his own.

When Naruto was growing up he was more often than not alone. He always played alone (the children called it That Corner of the playground), but he could still hear what the other children talked, or rather, yelled about. A few times he would hear the boys around his age complaining when their mothers would drag them away to put on their best suits and comb their hair so they could have a family portrait done.

Naruto didn't have any fancy clothes. He thought he wouldn't have minded if he had a mother to pull him away and fight with his messy blonde locks. He thought it might even be a little bit wonderful to have a mother spit in a tissue and scrub his cheeks clean, he saw a mother do that once or twice. Wonderful, in an icky sort of way.

On hot days in the summer, Naruto would walk down the streets and see parents out with their babies. A mother would gush and coo while the father stood back and took photos of his daughter eating her first ice cream. Sometimes, when he went to the stream in the woods to cool off he would see friends together, laughing and splashing. Sometimes the boys would pick up toads or bugs and chase the girls, and someone would take a picture of them screaming and running away, slimy creatures in hot pursuit.

Naruto didn't have anyone to take a picture of, even if he had owned a camera of his own. And he knew -no one even had to tell him- that he would never be invited to be a picture. No one wanted memories of times they spent with him, though Naruto didn't know what he had done to deserve this sort of treatment in the first place.

And then, when he was 12 and became a part of Team 7, he was finally in a photograph with his new team: Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke, and Sakura-chan. It didn't matter that Sasuke was looking off to the side, or even that Naruto was too busy scowling at Sasuke to look at the camera. What did matter was that someone wanted him in a picture. Someone wanted to treasure a memory with Naruto in it. Moments of acceptance like that didn't happen very often for Naruto, so he framed the photo and looked after it carefully to make sure nothing would ever happen to it.

Naruto had one other important photo, the very first photo he had ever taken. Naruto's team members slowly grew to accept him, and even like him, and Naruto had taken to training with Sasuke after their team practises and missions were over.

They had been practising Taijutsu in an open space when they were interrupted by fierce barking and voices muffled by the trees around the grassy clearing. Naruto turned his face to the sound and was rewarded by a quick fist to the side of his head. Naruto complained noisily for a moment, (Sasuke placed the blame on Naruto for losing focus), before telling Sasuke to wait there while he checked on the source of the noise.

He darted through the thick trees and came upon Hinata and Kiba arguing noisily. Though, to be fair, most of the noise came from Kiba and Akamaru. Naruto swung down from his perch in the tree and landed heavily beside Hinata, who was clutching a camera tightly to her chest. When Naruto inquired, Hinata explained quietly, while looking at the ground, that Kiba had called her and asked her to bring her camera so he might borrow it. But when Hinata found out that Kiba had been training Akamaru to rip a hole in the back of Shino's pants, and was hoping to take a picture of the moment, she wanted to refuse him, worried for her teammates feelings.

A notion struck Naruto and he turned quickly to Hinata and asked to borrow the camera for just a minute. Hinata stuttered a moment, her face glowing brightly, and shyly held the camera to Naruto. He snatched it up, yelled a quick word of thanks and a promise to return it in five minutes before disappearing into the deep forest, back toward the clearing. He only vaguely heard Kiba reprimanding Hinata for giving the camera so readily to Naruto and not to himself, when Hinata didn't even know for what purpose Naruto wanted it.

When he got back to the expanse of lush grass he found that Sasuke had indeed waited for him, but was practising his kunai throwing against some trees on the opposite side of the wide clearing. Naruto approached him quickly, and though he was sure Sasuke heard him, Sasuke chose to ignore him completely in favour of training.

Naruto stood behind him for no more than a minute before becoming intolerably bored. He shouted suddenly in a loud and abrasive voice, startling Sasuke who turned to reprimand him sharply. When he saw the camera held up to Naruto's face and pointed in his direction, he held up his hand and turned his head as quickly as he could, but knew when he heard the click he hadn't been fast enough.

Naruto lowered the camera and smiled cheekily at Sasuke, who, when he felt it was safe to turn around, immediately lunged for Naruto and the camera. Naruto danced out of his reach and grinned before taking off swiftly to return the camera to Hinata. Naruto was only surprised for a moment when he didn't feel Sasuke's chakra approaching, but then figured that Sasuke probably thought training would be a better use of his time over chasing Naruto through a forest.

He returned the camera to Hinata who promised to give the photo to Naruto when it was developed. She was indeed quick in her promise and returned the photo to Naruto only two days later.

It was blurry, slightly out of focus, and taken on a slant, but Naruto treasured that photo all the same. It was the first picture he had ever taken in his life, and it was of one of his most important people. It was fitting that his first photo contained all of the other firsts in his life. First Best Friend, first Brother, first Rival, first Kiss. First Betrayal. First Heartbreak. The first rekindling of all the painful childhood emotions he had almost forgotten about.

At the time, Naruto had no idea that taking a simple photo could leave such an impact on his life. He never doubted how important photos were, and he never understood how people could take them for granted. But he never understood himself the depth of emotion contained in a photo until he could look back at it and think about the moment that he took it.

Ever since the Sasuke left his side, Naruto kept that photo with him at all times. He would leave it safely zippered up in his pocket and he would pull it out and look at it with mixed emotions.

Fondness for the moment he had taken it. The times he and Sasuke felt so self-important, training and studying and proud because they were Ninja. In retrospect, their lives were so easy and carefree and Naruto wanted so much to return there.

He would look at it and feel anger bubbling to the surface. How could someone so dear to him just leave when Naruto had so few dear people in his life as it were?

He would look at it and feel regret, and stirrings of guilt. What if he had tried harder? What if he had taken the time to talk to Sasuke, instead of always just fighting with him? What if he had foreseen what Sasuke would do? After all, Sakura had been worried, hadn't she? What if he had…?

And then he would look at it and feel motivated. There was never a force in his life as powerful as Sasuke to get him to strive to do his best. Their rivalry pushed him and Naruto knew that if it weren't for Sasuke besting him and rubbing it in his face he would never be nearly as strong as he had become.

And now, Sasuke was the driving force behind everything he did. Even in his agonizing absence, Sasuke still motivated Naruto to become strong enough to break every bone in Sasuke's stupid body so he could drag him home and then beat him some more until he had sense knocked back into his head. Naruto would die and give up all his dreams if only it meant Sasuke would return home.

And every time Naruto was alone in his house, and he began to feel depressed, he would pull that photo out of his pocket. It was dog-eared and worn, with small rips and creases, and if inspected carefully, small smudges could be made out, as if it had gotten dripped by small drops of water here and there.

Despite its worn out condition, Naruto held on to that one shred of normalcy. He clutched onto that one tiny shard of the only reality that made sense to him anymore. It didn't matter to Naruto that it was in the past. That little instant of time that Naruto had captured, that moment held him together now.

Naruto never understood how people could take photographs for granted.

To Naruto, a photograph had become the most important thing in his life.


End file.
